to seoul to sfo. we heard from a passenger, one of the plane. and it is pretty consistent with, what the eyewitnesses have said. sfo, the runway, so many people can see it. so visible on 101, hotels. the passenger along with eyewitnesses says the tail hit first. the nose of the plane was pointed up. and the tail hit first. therefore, that's what everyone said, seeing this plane crash. the fbi has said, no in kaedica of terrorism. >> rachel kagan, spokesperson for sfo general where critical patients went to. right now they have 10 critical patients. six women, four men. two children. but, people have been sent to different area hospitals. we are talking about highland hospital, stanford hospital, saint francis hospital in the city as well and along the peninsula as well. the manifest included 291 passengers, 16 crew members, for a total of 307 people. it has been chaotic and difficult.

we just had a short while ago a news conference with mayor ed lee. chief fire chief joanne hayes-white talking how 190 people if you can understand when you look at the plane, 190 people were found when the firefighters arrived walking off that plane. so, much belter numbers than we could have seen. this could have been a much worse situation. initially, now we are hearing 132 people transported to hospitals. varying degrees of people injuri injuries, nbc bay area's cheryl herd on site since the plane crash happened. let's turn things over to her. >> reporter: jessica, i have been dichg pping in and out of continuing coverage. and some numbers, gives us a bigger picture, we have been told from the police chief and mayor, 291 passengers on, 16 crew members, 307 total people on board the plane that include passengers and crew.

48 people transported to bay area hospitals. so, those numbers aren't exact. but that's the numbers that we have right now. let's roll the videotape so you can see this plane as it sits on the runway. i can tell you, while you look at that videotape the tragic new that we got just moments ago. we are confirming that two people are dead. we are told they're women. 60, 6-0, people unaccounted for. 82 people taken to area hospitals. we don't know the extent of their injuries. now we have been reporting all afternoon long that eyewitness accounts telling us that the plane was looking strange as it approached the runway. the tailen end crash landed fir. the front of the plane skidded to a halt. the police chief and mayor did not go into any particulars as to what happened there. i guess they're leaving that for the ntsb. let's roll the videotape. hear what they did tell us about a half-hour ago.

>> ladies and gentleman, this its a fluid and active scene. not everyone has yet to be accounted for. our first responders responded immediately to this incident. and bay area hospitals, some nine of them including san francisco general, are treating those with injuries and, we will continue off to monitor their conditions. >> when we had arrived on scene the chutes had been deployed. we observed multiple numbers of people coming down the chutes and walking to their safety. a good thing. still very active in terms of coordinating all the numbers. and so forth. i am told the information from asiana airlines, manifest included 291 passengers, with 16 crew, total of 307. we had 48 initial transports from the scene to area homes. and that was, both at san francisco county and san mateo

county. >> i know that we are throwing a lot of numbers at you. this is all the information we are getting right now. looking at videotape of a woman being wheeled away in a wheelchair. there sequestering people in a reflection room that is at the other side of the airport. she did not say anything to us. in fact, we, we talked to, tried to talk a number of people who had gun one to a reflection rooa holding area. no one is saying anything to us. back to the number, 6-0 number, that are unaccounted for. we did them if the 60, the number, if those folks were presumed dead. they said no. this is probably a search-and-recovery situation right now. the go team is on their way from washington, d.c. we were also told that they had a news conference, not sure if that happened in washington, d.c. sure we will be getting that information. but that's pretty much all the information that we have now. we are going to bring you much more, as soon as we can get it. back to you guys.

>> sure. sorry. cheryl, thank you very much. raj, josh, you did an interview with diane dwyer, she was doing some clarifications on 60 people unaccounted for, what the coroner was saying they had done sweeps on the plane. could you go over that again? >> what's happening. they have gone through the plane. they don't believe. >> two or three times. >> they've don't believe anyone is on or around the plane. that is very good news. you can go from there and say, in theory those people hatch juhatch -- people have walked away, getting treatments. not at hospitals but at their homes. >> issue of language. also a translationer to in terms of names being given at hospitals and how they've have been transported as well. >> because this is shanghai hue seoul, to sfo, benjamin levy, a passenger/survivor, as people were rushing off the plane and being evacuated a lot of languages being spoken. the communication was difficult. now commune kaeication could be

difficult at low cucal hospital. hospitals from sfo to stanford. and cheryl has been touching on the numbers. 4 1/2 hours since it happened. the numbers. hear the numbers. it will change. really the communication that stand out to us so far between the control tower and the pilot of this asiana airlines flight 214. and communication we have had with one of the surviving passengers. first play you audio clip from the moment this happened. control tower, communicating with the pilot of asiana airlines, there was no call of distress prior tour of the landing. 11:27 a.m., the crash. no call of distress. the first communication between the pilot and the sfo tower. let's listen in. >> everybody calling stand by. hold your position. >> 63, 280, maintain 3,000.

214. emergency vehicles are responding. [ indiscernible ] >> emergency vehicles are responding. [ indiscernible ] >> you hear now, the pilot of asiana airlines, 214 communicating. you can hear emergency units are responding. bring in steven stock, we are talking about this. it wasn't just that communication. the tower had to communicate with dozens of other flights making approach to sfo. >> exactly right. >> i did want to touch on one issue that jessica brought up. and i think is a critical one. that is the fact that there does aper appear to be here, a language pilot. you hear the pilot trying to communicate in english, standard language for air traffic all over the world. i can tell you having worked in miami, worked here and in other

major metropolitan areas where there are international air flights that can some times be an issue. in this case i point that out. because in fact there was a notice to all airmen, a notice to pilots, that there had been some issues with the glide path -- the equipment, giving you've the precise measurements to, essentially land an airplane at 28 l. for most commercial pilots that would not be an issue. i will not say that is the cause of this. clearly there may have been language issues. and it may not have sunk in or been noticed by the pilot. i don't know how many time the pilot has the landed here at sfo. i can tell you this particular 777 has landed here many times before without incident. but clearly, something went wrong. where the pilot made what they say its a shallow approach. he came in too low, too fast. and had to pull that nose of the plane up. and that's when disaster ensued

all. up ajust . >> just so i've can understand, you mentioned the plane would run out of airspeed. what would cause tight be going at such a low airspeed? >> because again you are starting to land. you are sleg down the airspeed. not stopping. airspeed is critical for lift. in this case as you get closer to the runway, you are slowing down so when you hit the pavement you are not going at 600 miles an hour. you are going less than 200 miles an hour. that's all critical. you are getting lower, you have less, essentially room to make a mistake. and then when you realize, uh-oh, i'm not going to make the pavement. i have got to pull the plane up to get more lift. that can cause stall and further slow the airspeed. without gung the engines obviously. he obviously tried to do that as well. i don't hatch the data on that. clearly he is low. he is shallow. he has got to make the pavement. he is doing everything he can. as he does that, the slowing down, the stalling, and, a stall you literally drop out of the sky in a way. this, i don't bleach loelieve le

a stall. the airspeed slows down more. as the it does that the tail dips down. we have apparently what happened here. the tail hits first. that causes loss of all control. in fact it is quite remarkable this many people survived this crash because it was pretty dramatic when it hit that tail and the tail came off. >> all right. so we have some sound bites too. that you will be able to hear from one of the witnesses that was on the plane. is you could just imagine, steven, the question i want to know -- at what point. until they hit the tail were the passengers on board even aware that something main have been going wrong? just, speculation here, obviously. >> terrific question. >> a lot of times you come in. a little bumpy. you don't think the tail is going to hit and fall off. >> there is little doubt, exempt for william levy, raj and i talked to who was very aware what was going on. if you are watching a movie. preparing for a land. everything seems to be fine. apparently the pilot thought

everything was fine until the last few second. yes, jessica, to answer your question, i can imagine there were many people on board who didn't realize there was a problem until this loud boom. and they got hit hard. because the it, hit very, very hard. that was not a -- not even a rough landing that was an extremely hard landing. like coming to a stop on a rommrom rom -- roller coaster without a glide. you hit that hard. at that point, passengers had to know something was up. the plane went back up in the air as benjamin said and came to rest where you see it live right now. >> what we have tried to do is not speculate or give any number that haven't been confirmed or any idea of what might have been going through their mind. whether passengers or the eyewitnesses. but we did speak with one of the survivors. we have been talking about benjamin leafy v levy. a long flight. seoul to sfo, 10, 12 hours. had no idea anything was going wrong until the last instant,

when the pilot came in too lope. benjamin levy, spoke to us from sf jen rageneral treated for in ribs and his account of what happened at 11:27 a.m. this morning. >> it was a bit surreal. a lot of people screaming. not believing what was happening to them. i wasn't believing. the door was too close. and the door, which we don't have slide. the slide was gone. a piece of wing was gone. a lot of debris on the ground. started to usher people. trying to calm down as well. people were pushing each other out. and, so, you know -- the hostess was trying to help as well. there was a lot of commotion going on, obviously. so thankful that many people got out of the plane quickly. you know, not being too injured. i don't know the number. i understand there are some

deaths now. >> benjamin levy lives in the bay area, traveling from seoul. like so many on the flight. the passage way between seoul and sfo, tourists, nationals, koreans, u.s. nationals, a lot of business people. on a business flight. >> what they did. when the people tried how to get off the flight. there were so many languages, so much commotion. let's turn things over to monty francis, live by sfo. monty, what do you have for us? >> jessica, live here at a park south of the airport. dozens of people witness the aftermath of the crash. a handful of people saw the crash landing. they did it from this park. see a pretty popular spot for people. they lack to come and watch the planes take off and land at sfo. some were also in nearby hotels when the plane came in and experienced the crash landing. >> i heard a boom, i paused a

second. turned around. looked out the window. that's when i saw it.piper in t hotel room and saw the aftermath of the crash. took out his cell phone. and shot the video and posted it to youtube. others south of sfo watched in horror as the plane broke apart on the run way. >> a couple gentlemen walking along. i said did you see what happened to the plane? yeah, like it was coming in for a landing. the tail hit. started to cart wheel, spin and come to a stop right there. that was it. we saw the smoke coming up. >> many took photos and videos of the crash. many witnesses told us they saw passengers coming down the emergency chutes, before a large amount of smoke and fire consumed the plane. >> i heard two booms. so i just thought it was maybe fireworks, somebody still shooting or something. i looked out of the window and saw this plane on the ground. and i saw it before the fire, started to consume everything.

and i saw the chutes come out of one side of the plane. >> and back here live, you can see emergency crews are still here at the crash site. we know national transportation safety board is either en route or here to investigate the crash. also, two opposite runways here at sfo reopened at about 4:15. since then we have seen a number of flights both take off and land here at sfo. live, monty francis, nbc bay area news. >> thank you. this coming in from the white house. president obama has been keeping track of this incident here at sfo. the latest statement from the white house, we quote, reading, his thoughts and prayers go out to the families who lost a loved one and all those affected by the crash. dozens affected by the crash. out to sf general. elise, what do we know? >> we now know the 10 critically injured passengers taken to the er behind me earlier today have

been taken out of the er. being treated in other parts of the hospital. we also know there has been a second wave of passengers that arrived here. those passengers, less critically injured. want to show you the video now. in fact, we saw two women walking into the, into the hospital. another woman wheeled in on a stretcher. in total as many as 30 could be transported here today. earlier we were able to confirm eight adults and two children were again in critical condition. the adults range in age from 20 to 40. those patients have been taken out of the er. as you can imagine. hospital personnel have their hand full today. here is how they are responding to this large medical emergency. >> right. so we have members of the nursing staff, medical staff, we have radiology, pharmacy, laboratory, we have chaplains, social workers, and the entire trauma team has come together as

they woulden a dr ein a trauma. multicasual tef ity incident. >> 75 passengers take tine local hospitals. we have confirmed five taken to stanford hospital on the peninsula. five more st. mary's medical center in san francisco. aga again, majority transported here to sf general which has the only trauma center in the city. back here live we have learned that family members of the injured passengers have slowly been arriving here. of course, heartbroken by what has happened earlier today at sfo. that's the latest from sf general. live in san francisco. >> thank you, elise. we saw the hospital spokeswoman there for sf general, rachel kagan saying initially when people were brought in they either put,-- initially went into surgery or treated in the er. other members, patients, not as

critical were treated for burns, fractures, internal injuries. as you heard elise say, ten critical are out of surgery, but presumably in intensive care or other parts of the hospital where they're getting special ied care. turn things over to marianne favro at san jose in the national where some diverted flights ended up. mariaanne, as you saw people get off flights. reaction to what happened at sam. fo. must have bane veeen very shake. >> they were surprised to be landing here. many didn't know why. a lot of people who were very grateful that they were safe here in san jose. now we received an update. i can tell you that 25 planes have been diverted from sfo here to san jose. so far 20 of the planes have landed here. and five more are expected to land here in the next couple of

hours. the airport spokeswoman, maryann banner tells us though more flights are coming in diversions are not causing delays. extra staff called in to help. we talked to several passengers surprised to learn they were landing in san jose. >> we were supposed to land in san francisco, international airport. the pilot was circling and circling. final low he, told us, we can't land here. they're not allowing us to land. not telling us why. >> we were told we're going to san jose. >> our flight was canceled. many other flight were canceled. we are here in san jose trying to find another flight. >> most of the diverted passengers boarded shuttle buses headed for hotels in san francisco. one group of students who landed here, boarded a bus headed to stanford university. i talked to one family of six, who told me that now they're scrambling to find a flight from san jose to vancouver, because they're trying to catch their cruise to alaska.

reporting live in san jose, maryanne favro, bay area news. >> go ahead, jessica. >> hectic day for everyone. on the fli. a lot of commotion. the airline, asiana airlines released a statement -- thank you for your concern and support at this time. we are currently investigating and will update with news as soon as possible. our thoughts and prayers are with passengers and flight crew on the fly. we hope to provide you with further information asap. obviously the asiana airlines, working with ntsb and also with their own version of airline safety in korea as well to figure out exact three what happened. where the breakdown happened in this eairplane and when they due recover. don't think we have heard whether nay recovered the black boxes. >> they have. they have. this is one of the images that stands out in terms of not only dramatically, just to watch it as the a viewer. but also from an investigation point of view.

we were joined earlier by ken smith of sf fire. he says this really tells a big story here. because the smoke that you see engulfing this airplane, majority of it, fire and smoke was on outside. that is a big difference. had much of the smoke gone inside into the fuselage. there would have been a lot more injuries and deaths. right now only two deaths. he was clear to say this is actually a great sign. all that smoke is on the outside. we talked to benjamin levy, one of the survivors. he did feel smoke inside the fuselage. minimal to out here. this was one minute after the crash. the crash is at 11:27 a.m. this photo taken at 11:2 a.m. you see the magnitude of it on that flight. and on that tarmac. >> raj, you are also seeing the fire beginning to work its way to the fuselage. some of the other pictures, you, very accurately noted were before. you see that fire on the outside

of the airplane. and then this is starting to impact but that gave these passengers essentially critical minutes to get out alive. what that you were accurate, raj, without that, had that broken out inside the fuselage we would have been talking about a much more serious, monumental, count of injuries and perhaps, fatalities. >> also the fact. 10 1/2 hour flight. they were low on fuel. not at the beginning of this flight. >> in fact we, earlier this afternoon. you are absolutely right, jessica. it hold up to 171 kilograms of jet fuel. a lot of fuel. most of that had burned out. now they never, they neverland with nothing. but they did have -- just reserves on the tank. looking at the pictures in the video. this fire started in the right engine there. raj points out, accurately. stal it stays outside.

that helped people get alive. gave them critical time. jessica, as you point out. you have got to know how to get out. you have got to stay chaulalm. count the seats. there was smoke in the fuselage as our friend benjamin levy pointed out for him back at the back of the airplane. he was getting smoke. he stayed calm. oe opened the door. helped people out. >> in five hours been able to piece this together, real time, from kent smith. benjamin levy on the flight. and witnesses. right there at sfo whether you are on 101. or in any of the hotels, or that little park. walkway. a lot of people watch it. i take myston son to watch, th park. to see the flights come in. of a beautiful vantage point. that's why there are so many eyewitnesses to this. we talked about the business travel. here the video taken at milbray, or not sure the vantage point. >> we talk about business travel

between seoul, here, silicone valley, sfo, samsung headquarters in seoul, south korea. heard from a samsung executive used to be with google. he said he is fine. one of his former colleagues, cheryl sandberg, now at facebook. let's bring in scott budman from the newsroom tracking this part of the story really thank goodness, we're able to report these stories as well, skomenco. >> yeah, raj, we track and communica communicate. showing photos. many circulated instagram, and twitter. facebook post getting a lot of attention from facebook executive, cheryl sandberg. take a look at what she said. this is on her facebook page.

indeed that was sent all over facebook today. the executive she refers to by the way from samsung, and raj, jessica, mentioned a business flight. david eun on the flight. putting out via twitter. i just crash landed at sfo, tail ripped off. most everyone seems fine. i'm okay. surreal. now, tweets and facebook updates and instagram photos use a s us to let people know about passen errs injured -- passengers injured. and when runway would reopen. and by the air lyline to expres sympathy. back to you. >> when you see the post by cheryl sandberg it is gut wre h

wrenching, you would have been on the flight with your family, with your children, sympathy you must feel for people on that. two critically injured are two children. as steven pointed out in the panic as you tripe to get out of the flights, it is sometimes, smaller children, families, trying to figure out how you get down the chutes, how to get out of your seats, which way to go. there is some animation we want to show you. just into the newsroom. that kind of shows as flight 214 came in for its landing. boeing 777 cleared to land. runway, 28 l. telling you all afternoon. after touching down, passengers felt the bump, tail hit the back of the plane. a fire started soon afterward. understanding it may have happened on one of the engines. then the plane, came to sit at the left of the runway. passengers started to come out of the chutes. steven when you see this animation from what you have been hearing and what you have been able to piece together. what strikes you? >> again, i think the -- the

missing of the runway. i think that. evidence is clear. not an ntsb investigator. that's what they're looking. what they're going to be looking at. the black box. voice recorder. data recorder are going to show precisely what the glide path was for that airplane. and you can see -- the evidence, there is the glide path right there. this its the one that happened today. and, you can see it landing, or touching down, or almost touching down, just there goes there, right there. short of the runway. that is probably short by 2,000 feet. which its what at least three different sources have told me apparently happened. it may have even touched the water as he is trying to gun the engine. and not land short. and as he does that. as he lifts the the nose up, that's when the tail catches on the rocks. we, we have watched the video all day. from our helicopter. that show clearly -- there is debris from the very edge of where -- that rock -- interfaces with the bay. you can see it right here behind

me. these rocks are scattered all along the end of runway 28 l. very good evidence the plane itself hit the rocks and drug it along 28 l as the it spun and went off to the southwest side. the left side of the runway. that animation so clearly shows. >> you see the rock wall there. mike mckarin telling us, walked long at sfo. 10 foot rock wall. shored up. landfall. and passengers told us, benjamin levy told us, he felt, experienced coming into sfo. they came in too low. if it hit down. if the went back up according to this passenger, survivor and crashed back down. that's what you see. >> all the visual evidence we see goats es to that. add to that. first glance. to the untrained eye it looks-9 like this all add up to a plane that landed short. essentially. came in way too shallow.

didn't quite make the runway in time. there is the disaster that ensued. >> bears noting. 75 years of sfo, history of the airport, not once had a commercial jetliner crash and killing people until today. >> ironically, the runway repairs were to make the runway even safer. yet because the glide path was turned off. you could say, well the pilot, didn't have a good visual or didn't, didn't judge it right. there wasn't a guide path to help him, wasn't an electronic guide path. the run way was being shored up and this happened. not saying that contributed to the accident. the irony is sad, just a week ago they were working on 28 l where we see the airplane now. >> under the weather conditions it is normal for pilots to use visual. >> commercial pilots should be able to do this in their sleep. every pilot, says visual under visual flight rules this is not a problem. what ensued to cause the pilot to come in shall low that will

be the focus of this investigation. guarantee you. that's what ntsb is going to want to know. >> thank you, steven stock, standing by for us here. >> itch yf you are joining us, e holiday weekend. not many on television, you heard through word of mouth or social media we want to summarize what we know. summary. essential things we have learned about the crash at sfo. >> boeing 777 crash landed at 11:27. calling it a hard landing. show you video from minutes after the crash. the plane which was operated by asiana, airlines, took off from shanghai, seoul korea, to sfo, 10 1/2 hour flight. 60 people remain unaccounted for. doesn't mean 60 people are dead. at this point. don't know where they are. some may have been moved off to hospital. there may be some manifest name issues. sochl tra some translat